triad

A rule that is off by default: it reports a series of exactly three ("X, Y, and Z", three parallel short sentences, three parallel bullets) twice in a text, or once in the lead's first sentence once a decisions table turns it on.

What it catches

A series of exactly three ("X, Y, and Z", three parallel short sentences, three parallel bullets) twice in a text, or once in the lead's first sentence.

Dimension

economy: words that carry nothing. A finding is counted on the dimension of its rule, the cost it names to the reader.

Why

Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing" lists the rule of three among the habits of generated prose, and MeasureShape already counts the series per 1000 words as a feature a voice profile can compare. One natural series is ordinary writing, so a single one mid-paragraph is left alone; a text with two, or a lead that opens on one, reads as a template. Code spans, paths, flags, ALL_CAPS names, numbers and a list the author numbered are not judged. No firing has been labeled, so it ships off.

Default decision

The code is PRF4030. The decision depends on the kind of text judged:

Changing it

A decisions table sets this rule to deny, advise or off, for everything judged or for the files a glob matches. Proofread reads the table from the file its -decisions flag names:

{
  "rules": {"triad": "deny"},
  "paths": {"blog/**": {"triad": "off"}}
}

rules applies to every file. A glob in paths applies to the files it matches, and the last match wins. A rule set to off never reports.

Seeing it

A finding names the rule, its code and the decision that applies, and links here:

{"rule": "triad", "code": "PRF4030", "decision": "off", "url": "https://eli.gladman.cc/magus/reference/proofread/triad/"}

proofread rules prints this entry with every other rule's.

See also

• All proofread rules - every rule, grouped by what it checks
• Writing rules - how the rules apply to this repository's pages and pull requests
• The findings contract - the fields every finding carries